I'm very grateful someone finally wrote an article like this, it's so annoying having to constantly readjust people's misconceptions on something so basic.
More so, the very idea almost refutes itself. "Nobody drank water back then because everyone got sick all the time from drinking water" has an almost Yogi Berra quality to it.
This only requires a minor adjustment: "nobody drank water back then if they could help it, because whenever anyone did for a reason like poverty, they were very likely to get violently ill." Not that it's true.
More so, the very idea almost refutes itself. "Nobody drank water back then because everyone got sick all the time from drinking water" has an almost Yogi Berra quality to it.